Addressing Snow Removal
from Semi
Tractor Trailers

A December 17, 2010 article
in The New York Times
addressed the issue of snow removal from vehicles, including commercial
motor vehicles. The article specifically mentioned New Jersey:

Several states
previously imposed fines if snow flying from vehicles caused damage or
injury; New Jersey’s penalty is as much as $1,500 for commercial
vehicles.

Anyone who knows anything about New Jersey knows
that
that state gets a lot of snow in the winter. And of course, snow
collects on anything even remotely horizontal -- including the roofs of
trailers pulled by professional truck drivers.

How much snow does New
Jersey get? You may review the numbers from the
Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist. The snowfall
totals going back to the winter of 2002-2003 are here. One would have to do a bit
of addition to get the total
snowfall for an individual location for the entire winter since they
are broken up into individual events. (We
think that a spreadsheet would do a better job of conveying this
information, but then again, it's not our website.)

We are
concerned about how these snow removal laws, penalties and fines affect
all professional truck drivers who travel through states that have them.

Vicki commented on a post from Jason Cox on his
excellent website TruckDriversNews.com,
in which he railed about snow
removal from commercial motor vehicles in New Jersey.

With photos that Vicki took of snow removal
equipment at two
different
shipper's locations on the right, here's what she
wrote:

Thank you, Jason, for bringing attention to
these
topics. For now, I would
like to address the issue of snow removal from the tops of large
trucks. There are a number of questions that I think need to be asked:

1. What is the definition for "reasonable"
removal of
snow from the top of
a large truck and who stands with an objective determination as to
whether or not that has taken place? For example, if a driver leaves
with 1/2 inch of snow on the top of his/her trailer (which he/she
probably can't even see from the ground), is that OK whereas a whole
inch of snow is not?

2. Have the states that have enacted snow
removal laws also provided (probably at taxpayer expense) snow removal
equipment for truck drivers to be in compliance with the law? If the
states have not, who has? This could be an opportunity for a cottage
industry of snow removal equipment companies to start creating snow
removal stations in various places. But there are complications (space,
location, licensing and pricing among others) that must be considered.

3. Who will be liable for the injury or death of
a
driver who falls while
attempting to clear the roof of his/her trailer? Will the driver's
widow/widower be entitled to file a lawsuit against the state and/or
its legislators?

4. How close are drivers following trucks to
the trucks at the time large amounts of snow and ice come off? Articles
like the one that once appeared on ChicagoBreakingNews.com* never
reveal
that fact. Should the four-wheeler not be held responsible
(in part or in full) for following too closely?*http://archive.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/01/peter-morano-aurora-
semi-trailer-truck-snow-ice-injury-surgery-stitches-butterfield-road.html
(reference removed)

5. What happens to truck company insurance rates
when
drivers start climbing up
(assuming they can climb up) on the roofs of their trailers to remove
snow? Will the increase in insurance costs not go through the roof and
get passed along to customers?

6. Who among the nation's
millions of professional truck drivers who pull trailers with roofs
have the equipment to climb up on the roofs of their trailers to clear
the snow? Which types of ladders have been approved for use? Where will
the truckers store them on or in their trucks? Will the weight of the
ladders reduce the weight of payload drivers can haul?

7. If there is harness equipment to catch people
when
they fall when working
at a height, will that kind of equipment be made available to truck
drivers? Again, who will have that and how can drivers access it?

8.
How bad in reality is the problem associated with snow and ice coming
off the tops of truck trailers? How many people are injured every year?
What are the statistics? (Of course, even one person who is hurt is
bad, but is the situation really deserving of a state law to make sure
it never happens again?)

9. Can the scraping of snow and ice
from the tops of trailers weaken their roofs or even damage them? Who
pays for repairing the weakened or damaged areas? I speculate that it
will take only a few ruined loads (where snow or ice entered the
trailer through a hole on the roof) to bring attention to this
possibility. Will insurance pay for this?

I'm sure there are
many other questions that could be asked, but here's one that tops the
rest: Are states that set up these snow removal laws -- knowing that
there is inadequate equipment for truck drivers to be in compliance --
not setting an automatic trap for drivers to fall into financially? Is
it not downright predatory on the part of the states/legislators to
create laws like this?

Thank you for letting me share my thoughts on
this
subject. I look
forward to reading other drivers' thoughts on this.

Sincerely,
Vicki Simons

Since writing that post, Vicki found this in The New
York Times article (emphasis added):

Though reports of accidents have spurred such laws, no
statistics are available for crashes caused by the accumulation of snow
and ice on vehicles, according to a 2008 study prepared by
the American
Transportation Research Institute, a nonprofit group, for the American
Trucking Associations. The study noted that the deadliest accidents
caused by airborne ice involved larger vehicles, notably trucks. But
the trucking industry said a solution might not come until truckers
could find a snow-removal station as easily as a cup of java.

"We recognize that for passenger and commercial
vehicles, excess snow is a hazard," said Brandon Borgna, a spokesman
for the trucking group. "We want to comply with the rules, but there's
often no way to comply."

Drivers cannot be required to climb up on their rigs
and shovel without running afoul of worker-safety provisions, he
said....

New Jersey says it will not give tickets to drivers of
snow-capped trucks who
can demonstrate they are traveling to a snow-removal station.

Now that's an interesting concept: Where is a
professional truck driver supposed to find a snow removal
station?

If you are a professional truck driver who has
received any kind of fine, penalty or ticket as a result of failing to
remove snow or ice from the top of your truck, please contact
us. Unless we have
documentation on this issue, we don't really know where we stand.

Update: These articles have been
written since we originally published this page:

Ice Flies Off Truck Into
Car Windshield; 1 Seriously Hurthttp://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/27065826/detail.html
(no longer online)
(Please notice three things
here:
1. This was a case of ice coming
off the top of a truck, not snow;
2. The truck was going in the opposite
direction of the car; and
3. The sheets of ice were up to 6 inches
thick. How is a truck driver supposed to remove ice this thick from a
truck's roof, even
from the ground?)

Money saving tip: We
do not
recommend that you attempt anything that would
cause you bodily harm in clearing snow and ice from your truck. We do
recommend that you learn from your trucking
company what their policy is on snow removal from the tops of
trucks.

See if your company has a list of snow-removal
stations,
particularly those in a network like the network of preferred
truck stops for fueling.
(In fact, if it is public information, we
would be interested in linking to it on this page.)

Ask if the company will pay the fine for failure
to remove snow or ice from your truck if you
receive one. If the company will not pay the fine, will you be
responsible to pay it? What happens if you don't pay it? It is possible
that you may be able to fight a ticket of this nature if you have a
legal
services plan, but we've never heard of this happening.

Although we try to steer away from politics on
this site, another avenue to consider is contacting the legislators in
the states where snow removal laws are currently on the books and ask
them to repeal the laws. Without statistics, we feel they don't have
any grounds for such laws. Perhaps you agree.

If you are an OOIDA member, you may
also contact them for help or guidance.

In the meantime, many drivers carry a broom in
their trucks to sweep out trailers; if you carry one,
you can potentially use your broom to remove snow from the
reachable areas of your tractor from the ground.